Pads and gloves for the ball you actually face

Protection is where cricketers spend badly in both directions. Half the club is running in pads bought in 2011 with the straps held together by hope, and the other half has just spent two hundred pounds on the gear a professional wears against genuine pace they will never face.

Pads

Fit comes before everything. A pad that finishes above the knee roll on your leg is the wrong size, and it will slide, and eventually you will get one on the bare bit of shin and remember this sentence. The top of the pad should sit comfortably above the knee with the knee roll actually over the knee when you are standing in your stance.

Then weight, and here is where the money goes. The expensive pads are lighter for the same protection, and that matters most if you run a lot or keep wicket. For a batter who bats at seven and runs three singles, it matters much less than the shop would like.

Straps get overlooked and they are the part that fails. Look at how the straps attach, because a strap sewn straight onto the pad face will go before the pad does, and a pad with replaceable straps will outlive two sets.

Gloves

Gloves are the piece worth spending on, because they are the piece that gets hit and the piece that ruins your season when they fail. A broken finger from a glove that was already flat costs you three months.

The protection you want is on the thumb and the bottom hand's fingers. That is where the ball goes. Test them by pressing the sausages with your thumb: if they compress easily in the shop, they will do nothing in June.

Fit means your fingers reach the ends without pressing hard into them. Gloves that are slightly too big move on the handle, and gloves that are too small hurt within an hour.

Buy inners. They cost very little, they double the life of the glove by taking the sweat, and everybody skips them.

What to replace first

In order: gloves that have gone flat, then the thigh pad nobody thinks about, then pads. Old pads are uncomfortable and old gloves are dangerous, so if there is one thing in the bag to renew this winter, it is the gloves.

The helmet

One rule and no argument about it. Buy a helmet that meets the current British Standard, replace it after a real impact, and never buy one second hand, because you cannot see the damage that matters. Everything else on this page is about money. This bit is not.